---
title: Select
label: Select
order: 30
desc: Payload select determines which fields are selected to the result.
keywords: query, documents, pagination, documentation, Content Management System, cms, headless, javascript, node, react, nextjs
---

By default, Payload's APIs will return _all fields_ for a given collection or global. But, you may not need all of that data for all of your queries. Sometimes, you might want just a few fields from the response, which can speed up the Payload API and reduce the amount of JSON that is sent to you from the API.

This is where Payload's `select` feature comes in. Here, you can define exactly which fields you'd like to retrieve from the API.

## Local API

To specify `select` in the [Local API](../local-api/overview), you can use the `select` option in your query:

```ts
import type { Payload } from 'payload'

// Include mode
const getPosts = async (payload: Payload) => {
  const posts = await payload.find({
    collection: 'posts',
    select: {
      text: true,
      // select a specific field from group
      group: {
        number: true
      },
      // select all fields from array
      array: true,
    }, // highlight-line
  })

  return posts
}

// Exclude mode
const getPosts = async (payload: Payload) => {
  const posts = await payload.find({
    collection: 'posts',
    // Select everything except for array and group.number
    select: {
      array: false,
      group: {
        number: false
      }
    }, // highlight-line
  })

  return posts
}
```


<Banner type="warning">
  **Important:**
  To perform querying with `select` efficiently, Payload implements your `select` query on the database level. Because of that, your `beforeRead` and `afterRead` hooks may not receive the full `doc`.
</Banner>


## REST API

To specify select in the [REST API](../rest-api/overview), you can use the `select` parameter in your query:

```ts
fetch('https://localhost:3000/api/posts?select[color]=true&select[group][number]=true') // highlight-line
  .then((res) => res.json())
  .then((data) => console.log(data))
```

To understand the syntax, you need to understand that complex URL search strings are parsed into a JSON object. This one isn't too bad, but more complex queries get unavoidably more difficult to write.

For this reason, we recommend to use the extremely helpful and ubiquitous [`qs-esm`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/qs-esm) package to parse your JSON / object-formatted queries into query strings:

```ts
import { stringify } from 'qs-esm'
import type { Where } from 'payload'

const select: Where = {
  text: true,
  group: {
    number: true
  }
  // This query could be much more complex
  // and QS would handle it beautifully
}

const getPosts = async () => {
  const stringifiedQuery = stringify(
    {
      select, // ensure that `qs` adds the `select` property, too!
    },
    { addQueryPrefix: true },
  )

  const response = await fetch(`http://localhost:3000/api/posts${stringifiedQuery}`)
  // Continue to handle the response below...
}
```

<Banner type="info">
  **Reminder:**
  This is the same for [Globals](../configuration/globals) using the `/api/globals` endpoint.
</Banner>


## defaultPopulate collection config property

The `defaultPopulate` property allows you specify which fields to select when populating the collection from another document.
This is especially useful for links where only the `slug` is needed instead of the entire document.

With this feature, you can dramatically reduce the amount of JSON that is populated from [Relationship](/docs/fields/relationship) or [Upload](/docs/fields/upload) fields.

For example, in your content model, you might have a `Link` field which links out to a different page. When you go to retrieve these links, you really only need the `slug` of the page.

Loading all of the page content, its related links, and everything else is going to be overkill and will bog down your Payload APIs. Instead, you can define the `defaultPopulate` property on your `Pages` collection, so that when Payload "populates" a related Page, it only selects the `slug` field and therefore returns significantly less JSON:

```ts
import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'

// The TSlug generic can be passed to have type safety for `defaultPopulate`.
// If avoided, the `defaultPopulate` type resolves to `SelectType`.
export const Pages: CollectionConfig<'pages'> = {
  slug: 'pages',
  // Specify `select`.
  defaultPopulate: {
    slug: true,
  },
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'slug',
      type: 'text',
      required: true,
    },
  ],
}
```

<Banner type="warning">
  **Important:**
  When using `defaultPopulate` on a collection with [Uploads](/docs/fields/upload) enabled and you want to select the `url` field, it is important to specify `filename: true` as well, otherwise Payload will not be able to construct the correct file URL, instead returning `url: null`.
</Banner>

## populate

Setting `defaultPopulate` will enforce that each time Payload performs a "population" of a related document, only the fields specified will be queried and returned. However, you can override `defaultPopulate` with the `populate` property in the Local and REST API:

**Local API:**

```ts
import type { Payload } from 'payload'

const getPosts = async (payload: Payload) => {
  const posts = await payload.find({
    collection: 'posts',
    populate: {
      // Select only `text` from populated docs in the "pages" collection
      // Now, no matter what the `defaultPopulate` is set to on the "pages" collection,
      // it will be overridden, and the `text` field will be returned instead.
      pages: {
        text: true,
      }, // highlight-line
    },
  })

  return posts
}
```

**REST API:**

```ts
fetch('https://localhost:3000/api/posts?populate[pages][text]=true') // highlight-line
  .then((res) => res.json())
  .then((data) => console.log(data))
```
